GREENLAND HALIBUT
Reinhardtius hippoglossoides
Publication of Advice: 7 June 2024. Published by Marine and Freshwater Research Institute.
Advice
MFRI and ICES advise that when the MSY approach is applied, catches in the 2024/2025 fishing year in the East Greenland/ Iceland/Faroe Islands area should be no more than 17 980 tonnes.
Stock development
Fishing pressure is above FMSY and below Fpa and Flim; spawning stock size is below MSY Btrigger and Bpa but above Blim.
Greenland halibut. Catch by areas, recruitment (age 5), fishing mortality (ages 9–14), and spawning stock biomass (SSB). Shaded areas and error bars show 95% confidence intervals.
Basis of the assessment and reference points
Basis of the advice | MSY approach |
Management plan | There is no management plan for this stock |
Assessment type | Analytical assessment (Gadget) that uses catches in the model and in the forecast |
Input data | Commercial catches (international landings); length composition by gear; one combined survey (GRL-deep, 1998–2016, and the Icelandic bottom trawl survey – Autumn (IS-SMH) since 1996);distributions from the Icelandic bottom trawl survey. |
Approach | Reference point | Value | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
MSY approach | FMSY | 0.22 | Fishing mortality that leads to MSY; estimated using stochastic simulations |
MSY Btrigger | 24 895 | Bpa | |
Precautionary approach | Blim | 18 213 | Bloss (SSB in 2010) |
Bpa | 24 895 | Blim × e1.645σ, σ = 0.19. | |
Fpa | 0.29 | FP05, maximum F at which the probability of SSB falling below Blim is < 5% | |
Flim | 0.41 | Fishing mortality which, in stochastic simulations, results in median SSB at Blim |
Prospects
Greenland halibut.* *Assumptions made for the interim year and in the forecast.
Variable | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Fages 9-14 (2024) | 0.28 | F that corresponds to assumed catch in 2024. |
SSB (2025) | 23 971 | From the assessment; in tonnes |
Recruitment 2 ára (2025) | 49 516 | From the assessment; in thousands. |
Recruitment 2 ára (2026) | 47 990 | From the assessment; in thousands. |
Catch (2024) | 21 590 | Advised catch for 2024; in tonnes |
Greenland halibut. Projection of reference biomass and SSB (tonnes) based on the MSY approach.
Basis | Catch (2024/2025) | F~(ages 9-14) (2024/2025) | SSB (2026) | % SSB change1) | % advice change2) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
MSY approach: FMSY * SSB2024/MSY Btrigger | 17 890 | 0.21 | 26 287 | 10 | -9 |
1) SSB in 2026 relative to SSB in 2025 | |||||
2) Advice value for 2024/2025 relative to advice value for 2023/2024 (19703 t) | |||||
The advised catch for 2025 has decreased due to an increase in fishing mortality that has lowered SSB to below MSY Btrigger.
Quality of the assessment
In 2024 an error was discovered affecting the estimates of spawning stock biomass resulting in an upward revision of the entire SSB history. It was therefore necessary to recalculate reference points. The revised Blim and Bpa were estimated higher than previously, while Fmsy was estimated to be lower.
Connectivity to the adjacent Greenland halibut stocks (Northeast Arctic stocks in ICES SA1+2 and NAFO SA 0+1) is known but unquantified (Albert and Vollen, 2015; Westgaard et al., 2017; Vihtakari et al., 2022). The current assessment may therefore represent trends from more than one population. This issue adds to the uncertainty in the assessment.
Greenland halibut. Current assessment (red line) compared with the 2023 estimate.
Other information
Greenland halibut is a relatively slow-growing and late-maturing species. Low recruitment in the period 2012 to 2021 along with sustained catch levels close to Fpa has caused the SSB to slowly decrease to below MSY Btrigger in 2023. However, increased recruitment since 2022 based on survey observations may increase the fishable biomass from around 2026 onwards.
ICES notes that there is no agreement between coastal states on catch allocation; while most of the catch is taken in Division 5a and Subarea 14, a proportion of the catch comes from fisheries outside the areas managed with TACs. An agreement exists between Iceland and Greenland, allocating 56.4% and 37.6% of the adviced catch each of the nations respectively.
Advice, TAC and catch
Greenland halibut. Recommended TAC to East Greenland / Iceland / Faroes, national TAC, and catches (tonnes).Note that catch in Icelandic waters is by fishing year whereas catch in other areas and total catch is by calendar year.
Fishing year | Recommended TAC | Icelandic TAC1) | Catches Iceland | East Greenland TAC2) | Catches other nations3) | Total catch4) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1984 | 25 000 | 30 000 | 30 067 | 3 969 | 34 038 | |
1985 | 25 000 | 30 000 | 29 210 | 2 870 | 32 116 | |
1986 | 25 000 | 30 000 | 31 063 | 1 947 | 33 027 | |
1987 | 25 000 | 30 000 | 44 775 | 1 754 | 46 665 | |
1988 | 30 000 | 30 000 | 48 630 | 2 104 | 50 774 | |
1989 | 30 000 | 30 000 | 58 332 | 2 870 | 61 202 | |
1990 | 30 000 | 30 000 | 36 573 | 2 330 | 38 903 | |
1991 | 27 000 | 33 000 | 31 187 | 2 054 | 36 869 | |
1991/1992 | 25 000 | 25 000 | 30 221 | 3 322 | 35 326 | |
1992/1993 | 30 000 | 30 000 | 39 796 | 6 922 | 40 909 | |
1993/1994 | 25 000 | 30 000 | 28 420 | 9 643 | 37 640 | |
1994/1995 | 30 000 | 30 000 | 26 499 | 9 686 | 37 177 | |
1995/1996 | 20 000 | 20 000 | 22 292 | 15 203 | 37 105 | |
1996/1997 | 15 000 | 15 000 | 17 351 | 12 906 | 31 086 | |
1997/1998 | 10 000 | 10 000 | 10 312 | 10 870 | 20 598 | |
1998/1999 | 10 000 | 10 000 | 10 578 | 10 111 | 21 304 | |
1999/2000 | 10 000 | 10 000 | 11 560 | 13 570 | 28 106 | |
2000/2001 | 20 000 | 20 000 | 20 195 | 13 057 | 43 934 | |
2001/2002 | 20 000 | 20 000 | 19 262 | 10 758 | 46 965 | |
2002/2003 | 23 000 | 23 000 | 20 266 | 13 232 | 33 590 | |
2003/2004 | 20 000 | 23 000 | 15 784 | 16 008 | 31 485 | |
2004/2005 | 15 000 | 15 000 | 13 028 | 12 170 | 25 185 | |
2005/2006 | 15 000 | 15 000 | 12 670 | 9 728 | 21 526 | |
2006/2007 | 15 000 | 15 000 | 9 968 | 11 872 | 21 452 | |
2007/2008 | 15 000 | 15 000 | 9 750 | 11 700 | 18 320 | 29 991 |
2008/2009 | 5 000 | 15 000 | 15 581 | 21 000 | 20 369 | 36 144 |
2009/2010 | 5 000 | 12 000 | 14 079 | 12 000 | 13 233 | 26 954 |
2010/2011 | 5 000 | 13 000 | 12 231 | 12 000 | 12 726 | 32 295 |
2011/2012 | 12 000 | 13 000 | 13 145 | 13 000 | 15 512 | 36 253 |
2012/2013 | 20 000 | 15 000 | 14 092 | 10 000 | 12 120 | 33 381 |
2013/2014 | 20 000 | 12 500 | 11 942 | 8 300 | 10 420 | 24 490 |
2014/2015 | 25 000 | 14 100 | 11 852 | 9 500 | 12 620 | 25 020 |
2015/2016 | 22 000 | 12 400 | 13 408 | 8 300 | 12 667 | 25 320 |
2016/2017 | 24 000 | 13 500 | 12 152 | 9 000 | 10 166 | 22 092 |
2017/2018 | 24 000 | 13 535 | 14 873 | 9 024 | 11 436 | 26 650 |
2018/2019 | 24 150 | 13 621 | 12 654 | 9 080 | 10 551 | 22 595 |
2019/2020 | 21 360 | 12 047 | 12 367 | 8 031 | 9 660 | 22 195 |
2020/2021 | 23 530 | 13 271 | 12 876 | 8 847 | 9 799 | 22 635 |
2021/2022 | 26 650 | 15 031 | 10 164 | 10 020 | 9 758 | 20 899 |
2022/2023 | 26 710 | 15 064 | 14 885 | 10 043 | 11 240 | 25 425 |
2023/2024 | 19 703 | 13 463 | 8 099 | |||
2024/2025 | 17 890 | |||||
1) National TAC | ||||||
2) TAC by calendar year | ||||||
3) Catches of other nations are given by calendar year | ||||||
4) Calendar year | ||||||
References and further reading
Albert, O. T., and Vollen, T. 2015. A major nursery area around the Svalbard archipelago provides recruits for the stocks in both Greenland halibut management areas in the Northeast Atlantic. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 72: 872–879. https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsu191.
ICES. 2023a. Benchmark workshop on Greenland halibut and redfish stocks (WKBNORTH). ICES Scientific Reports. 5:33. https://doi.org/10.17895/ices.pub.22304638.
Vihtakari, M, Elvarsson, B., Treble, M, Nogueira, M., Hedges, K., Hussey, N.E., Wheeland, L., Roy, D., Ofstad, L.H., Hallfredsson, E.H., Barkley, A., Estévez-Barcia, D., Nygaard, R., Healey, B., Steingrund, P., Johansen, T., Albert, O-T., and Boje, J. 2022. Migration patterns of Greenland halibut in the North Atlantic revealed by a compiled mark-recapture dataset. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 79: 1902-1917.
Westgaard, J. I., Saha, A., Kent, M., Hansen, H. H., Knutsen, H., Hauser, L., Cadrin, S. X., et al. 2017. Genetic population structure in Greenland halibut (Reinhardtius hippoglossoides) and its relevance to fishery management. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 74: 475–485. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2015-0430.
MFRI Assessment Reports 2024. Greenland halibut. Marine and Freshwater Research Institute, 7 June 2024.